Winds of Change

Coal, Kansas Politics, and The New Activism

It's another overflow Monday evening at the Free State Brewery, and they're wobbling like bowling pins out on the patio. In a ritual instigated in large part by bargain-priced beer, townies of all stripes gather in number on this night to jostle, slosh on, and holler at each other. The din of the place is a physical presence and the tap handles move like metronomes. Hippies hang with lawyers and students debate professors, boundaries blurred by conviviality and a torrent of Copperhead Ale.

Tucked around a table, somewhere in the hubbub, an activist group called Free State Mondays holds its weekly meeting.

Tagged by the mainstream media as the "New Activists," the members of the Mondays group are a clean-cut, educated bunch: informed, composed and well-spoken. Most are in their 20s, and all are actively trying to change in the world-primarily via climate and energy issues, and mostly here at the grass-roots level.

Photo by Tom King

Free State Mondays in one of their meetings.

The Revolution Will Be Downloaded

They are a breed evolved from the long-haired, placard-waving, establishment-frightening revolutionaries of the '60s and '70s. The New Activists are as effective with a Blackberry as Abbie Hoffman with a bullhorn. They are equally at ease in the boardroom as in the community center. And, thanks to the internet, likely much better informed.

The New Activists employ social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter to mobilize people and propagate campaigns-it's little wonder they reap far more mainstream media coverage than their predecessors.

But the New Activists are sometimes criticized by pundits and even by some of their own kind-by those who believe that commitment to a cause means standing up in public to be counted. They say that the New Activists' non-confrontational tactics smack of laziness and apathy, of a video-game approach to life-and-death issues.

The members of the Mondays group are puzzled by such criticism.

"You don't see the same level of public demonstration, but there's a lot more effective organizing. We need legislators in there who understand the issues," said group member Brian Sifton, who's also on the city's Sustainability Advisory Board.

For many New Activists, provoking a better future relies less on organizing a good sit-in than in finding a sympathetic investment banker. For James Roberts, a Mondays regular, the low-key profile of the New Activism gives him the edge: "I'm not your cliche activist-that's my advantage. I look like a Republican."

Tipping point

Horn, 28, is the Director of Community Outreach for the Climate and Energy Project (CEP), an offshoot of the venerable Land Institute in Salina. Roberts, 23, is the Director of Statewide Coordinating for the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy (GPACE). They are the type of people once called All-American: intelligent and focused, healthy and attractive, their charisma and confidence stoked by passion.

Horn concedes that the New Activism, while by no means apathetic, might be somewhat distracted. "Our attention has been captured by genius marketers. We're told that our society is one of consumerism," she says. "When all your energy is caught up in trying to compete in that world, it's difficult to be engaged with social causes. It's a designed distraction."

Horn thinks leadership is the missing link: "I believe there's some truth that my generation is somewhat apathetic. I don't think we're doing enough. Honestly, many of us are just waiting for a leader to ask something of us."

Roberts wonders where the tipping point lies for the New Activism. "Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King didn't add anyone to their Facebook page," he interjected at a recent Mondays discussion. "What will it take to get us into the streets?"

As the third windiest state in the nation, Kansas produces just one percent of its energy from wind; 89% (net) comes from burning coal. Clearly, coal isn't going away anytime soon. Roberts says GPACE's stance on the future of coal in energy production "is that it's part of the mix. Let's use it responsibly, let's maximize its efficiency, and let's not invest in any more of it-yet-because as of now, it's the biggest risk to our health, our economy, and our environment."

Old King Coal

Every hour or so, a coal train trundles through North Lawrence.

"At least 15 trains per day, every day of the year," says Jay Sayre, who worked as an auditor for the Santa Fe railroad for 38 years. Most of the trains start out in the vast coalfields of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, and most pass through town on their way to other locales. But "every two or three days, they roll between 120 and 140 cars into the Lawrence Energy Center just northwest of town," says Sayre.

For the New Activists this is a potential lightning rod to affect real change right here in Lawrence. "There's no real competitor in the energy market in this state," Roberts says. "If (most) of our energy comes from coal, not only don't the coal companies have any incentive to clean up carbon and mercury emissions, they have no incentive to maximize efficiency in coal plants. There's information out there that coal plants can produce energy with 40% more efficiency. That's a number I see as a real goal."

State Representative Tom Sloan, a Republican in the 45th District and a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's Electricity Advisory Committee, wrote in an email interview: "Burning coal, natural gas, and oil results in carbon and other emissions that contribute to global warming and health problems. Yet coal and oil also provide the lowest cost energy for the U.S. and the world. Energy supplies, whether to generate electricity or fuel motor vehicles, must be both reliable and affordable." He continued: "Clean coal technologies are expensive to install and operate. Before such technologies are installed, public utility commissions, elected officials, and the public must be willing to approve and pay the higher prices for electricity." (Note: the full email is reprinted in the comments section below)

Clearly pursuing renewable energy sources in Kansas will require more than a reliance on market forces and existing energy producers. The New Activists likely have found a calling.

"It is time to see and seize the opportunity before us rather than clinging to outdated energy technologies. I believe we can do better, especially if we listen to the ideas, and act on the hopes, enthusiasm and aspirations of our younger generation."

"Fight the Power" was the chorus of street activists in the '60s and '70s; "Use the Power" is the song the New Activists are singing now. With technological marvels and sophisticated skills at their disposal, with calls for change ringing throughout the land, and with King Coal attempting to expand his kingdom on the prairie, perhaps Kansas' New Activists need only realize that they are the leaders they are looking for. Â»

More like this story on Lawrence.com

Comments

The following is the full email response from Tom Sloan, 45th District Representative:(Part 1 of 5)Mr. King: I am pleased to respond to your questions related to energy issues. I assume that you are writing an objective piece, and that my actual responses will be used in your article, edited if necessary for length. I am first an educator, and second an elected official who deals in facts and works in an environment in which one takes steps toward a goal.Question 1: Climate change, global warming, acid rain, heavy metal pollution, background radiation all of these things have been shown to have a significant relation to human use of coal. How do you address these factors in your support of building more coal plants in Kansas?Answer: My support was not for coal, my support was for renewable energy incentives that had been dismissed, but which are of vital necessity to our energy future. It is not enough to simply say "no new coal plants" without addressing emissions from existing plants, such as our very own Lawrence coal plant. I believe that it was important to add renewable energy incentives to the bills that is what I did. I have been consistently committed to advancing renewable energy policies, and I have introduced and passed more legislation related to renewable energy incentives than any other Kansas legislator. I voted against the proposed coal plants when the renewable energy amendments that I had inserted during Committee debate were removed on the House floor. I voted for the more balanced energy plans/legislation when my amendments were restored.There were at least three issues involved in this debate: 1) whether the Dept. of Health & Environment could legally deny the air permit due to the release of carbon dioxide when neither the State nor federal government has established CO2 emission standards; 2) whether the construction of the most environmentally responsible coal-fired plant in the nation one that would capture 45% of the carbon going through the flu gas stream should be authorized; and 3) whether the renewable energy incentives that were included in the bills should be considered milestones in developing a responsible, balanced energy portfolio for Kansas.(continued below)

(Part 3 of 5)Clean coal technologies are available today and additional research will provide more options in the near future. The Eastman Chemical Company gasifies coal and sells the captured CO2; the Tampa Electric Company has an electric generation unit that uses gasified coal as its fuel source; and Sunflower proposed to capture 45% of the flu gas carbon by using algae to "eat" the carbon. Carbon dioxide is used in oil fields to increase yields by "pushing" the oil toward production wells; it also is used in the coal fields to "release" methane gas from the coal for collection and use for home heating. Additional research continues on whether CO2 can be permanently sequestered and pipelines to carry the captured CO2 must be constructed to move it to appropriate geological formations.Clean coal technologies are expensive to install and operate. Before such technologies are installed, public utility commissions, elected officials, and the public must be willing to approve and pay the higher prices for electricity. It is important to note that electricity generated from natural gas is at least 4 times more expensive than coal and nuclear generated electricity (Westar Energy's 2008 Annual Report) and if natural gas is burned to generate electricity, that gas is not stored for home heating use in the winter thereby increasing heating costs. Wind and solar energy are both intermittent sources of generation they need other generation sources to guarantee the availability of electricity on customer demand.A responsible energy policy is one that includes a mix of renewable energy generation; new advanced coal generation units; the retirement of older natural gas and coal units; investments in energy conservation/efficiency; and nuclear generation. A general consensus exists that 20% of the nation's energy can come from wind generation, advanced coal technologies can help provide the remaining 80% of the energy our state and nation need. Question 3: Where do you see renewables wind, solar, hydro, geothermal in Kansas' energy future?(continued below)

(Part 4 of 5)Answer: Renewable generation has a bright future in Kansas both to meet the 20% of our domestic energy needs that T. Boone Pickens, the American Wind Energy Association, and other groups state is reasonable, and for export to other states without significant wind generating potential (e.g., Missouri). Lawrence is home to the state's only hydroelectric generation plant and geothermal heat pumps are being installed in an increasing number of homes. While very few large scale solar collector systems are being constructed, many homes have active and/or passive solar systems.My work in organizing the five Kansas Electric Transmission Summits was focused on removing barriers to the construction of high voltage electric transmission lines to move wind power from rural areas to the customer load centers in Kansas and other states. Wind developers cannot construct the necessary wind farms to serve regional needs without having access to transmission lines, lines that the cannot afford to construct on their own. It is important to note that there are two components of electricity energy and capacity. Energy is the amount of electricity produced; capacity is the amount of time that the full energy can be produced. Wind generation in Kansas has a capacity factor (full production) of approximately 38-40 percent. While people in Kansas say th e wind always blows, the wind turbines need wind speeds bgenerating electricity; full production occurs with speeds between 22-33 mph (depends on the size of machine and manufacturer); and shuts off at 55 mph. Thus, wind energy frequently is not available during peak demand times and solar is not available at night or during cloudy weather. Ultimately, a combination of wind/solar may prove feasible to provide increased energy and with higher capacity factors than either has alone.Research on cost-effective energy storage for both wind and solar energy continues. Until the storage problems are solved so that energy and capacity are fully available from renewable resources, fossil fuel and nuclear electric generation will continue to be necessary.(continued below)

(Part 5 of 5)A promising technology is the development of synthetic gas from municipal waste and other bio-mass sources. Kansas has great potential to produce synthetic natural gas and cellulosic ethanol if the transportation of the raw materials (e.g., switchgrass, corn stover) can be accomplished cost effectively. This is an excellent research area where Kansas' Regents' Institutions' faculty will ultimately make a difference for our state, nation, and world. Final comments: I encourage you to review the materials on my web site, tomsloan2008.com, for information about other issues, as well as more indepth comments on energy matters. I am a member of the Kansas Energy Council, on the Executive Committee of the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative, a member of the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Electricity Advisory Committee, and a member of the Kansas House of Representatives' Energy & Utilities Committee.We have never met and I am responding to the questions on trust that although you are a freelance journalist, that you adhere to the ethical standards of the journalism profession. If you have questions about my responses to the questions you posed, please contact me. I hope that we have an opportunity to meet and talk in the future.Tom Sloan 45th District Representative 841-1526

(Part 2 of 5)Among the renewable energy incentives that I added to the proposed legislation, and which I previously had not been able to pass as "stand alone" bills, were: 1) tax incentives for energy efficiency improvements in residential rental properties; establishment of a scientist-based Commission to advise the Legislature on global warming issues and emerging technologies to address greenhouse gas emissions; require new coal-fired generation units to utilize CO2 capture and mitigation reduction technologies; require reduction in mercury emissions below current federal and state standards for new plants; require KDHE to annually identify operators of coal-fired generation units with CO2 emissions greater than 110% of the statewide average; and establish maximum nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emission levels for new plants that were more stringent than existing federal and state standards.In addition, among other environmentally responsible policies that I attempted to pass were: 1) require existing coal-fired electric generation units to invest in CO2 capture and mitigation; and 2) a carbon tax on the worst emitters of CO2.The proposed new coal plants in SW Kansas would have emitted 25% less CO2 per MWh than does the Lawrence Energy Center even before taking into consideration the ground-breaking carbon capture system that the new Sunflower plants would install. They would also have paid for the high voltage electric transmission lines that would have permitted the development of our state's wind generating potential.I believe it would have been irresponsible for me to simply oppose the bills without offering changes to make it better more environmentally responsible and that is precisely what I did. Qu estion 2: Coal and oil are increasingly perceived as "dirtyAnswer: Burning coal, natural gas, and oil results in carbon and other emissions that contribute to global warming and health problems. Yet coal and oil also provide the lowest cost energy for the U.S. and the world. Energy supplies, whether to generate electricity or fuel motor vehicles, must be both reliable and affordable. Developing the public policies that provide incentives for alternative fuels must have public acceptance, be cost effective, and result in reliable energy supplies. (continued below)

Great article. I think this new activism has definitely learned from the strategies that have failed in the past. Unfortunately, the ability to write a good press release and craft media messages that draw people to ones cause rather than alienate is still in short supply among many activist circles. I talk about it in a blog here: http://www.lawrence.com/blogs/just_red_pill/2008/sep/05/activism/ (It's Time Anti-War Activists Go Back to School)Speaking of activist information and theory, people who dig this kind of stuff should check out this site: www.FilmsForAction.org - it's a portal to the best activist-issue videos online. A great resource for general knowledge, research, and awareness-spreading. Cheers!

Rep. Sloan's Response:3) whether the renewable energy incentives that were included in the bills should be considered milestones in developing a responsible, balanced energy portfolio for Kansas.GPACE Response: It is interesting that Rep. Sloan earlier claims that he has "introduced and passed more legislation related to renewable energy incentives than any other Kansas legislator", then (just above) states that he added amendments that he "had not previously been able to pass as 'stand-alone bills." I do not propose to question how hard Rep. Sloan has worked for renewable energy in Kansas, but one must wonder how effectively he has done so given the fact that Kansas has NO state policies encouraging renewables - no net metering, no RES or RPS, no green pricing, etc. (see www.climateandenergy.org for an animated view of where Kansas stands on renewable energy policies compared to other states). Colorado has secured over 2,000 jobs for wind turbine manufacturing, Arkansas just got a 1000-job Clipper plant, Iowa has hundreds of wind-related manufacturing jobs, there are 480 permanent wind-related jobs just in Norton County,Texas, and that county last year reduced taxes due to increased revenues from wind producers. Rep. Sloan may be introducing a lot of amendments and getting himself appointed to a lot of committees, but it hasn't resulted in any substantive renewable energy progress for the rest of us in Kansas. Additionally, the carbon tax proposed by the legislation was $3/ton. The anticipated MINIMUM cost of carbon under federal carbon regulations or trading is $30/ton (that is the current price paid for CO2 used in enhanced oil recovery operations). The proposed tax paid only lip service to actual carbon reduction while failing to recognize that cleaning up after coal will actually mean paying more to burn it.

Rep. Sloan's Response:There were at least three issues involved in this debate:1) whether the Dept. of Health & Environment could legally deny the air permit due to the release of carbon dioxide when neither the State nor federal government has established CO2 emission standards;GPACE Response Under our Constitution, it is not given to the legislative branch to rule upon or interpret existing laws that responsibility belongs to the judicial branch of our government. So why did the legislature intervene, overstepping it's authority under the separation of powers, and wasting valuable time and taxpayer dollars, to benefit a single company?

Rep. Sloan's Response:2) whether the construction of the most environmentally responsible coal-fired plant in the nation one that would capture 45% of the carbon going through the flu gas stream should be authorized; andGPACE Response: This one is particularly interesting, since there is currently no commercially viable technology for carbon capture from pulverized coal plants like those in Kansas (including the proposed Holcomb Station Expansion). The experimental algae reactor process that Rep. Sloan and Sunflower claims would "capture 45% of the carbon" was NOT part of Sunflower's permit request; Sunflower would not have been obligated in any way to make any such component functional, ever. The algae-reactor discussed by Sunflower has never been successfully tested at anything approaching utility scale. Recent experiments to bring this process up to utility scale - in fact what sponsors of the bill touted as the model for Sunflower's expansion - were abandoned by the Department of Energy and its partners, citing expense and infeasible technologically. Additionally, the proposed algae reactor would require a body of water at least FIVE TIMES the size of Kanopolis Lake. Given the required size of an algae reactor at Holcomb, the materials and energy needed to build and maintain it over a couple of decades would likely cost two to three times of the cost of the coal plants themselves. No member of the legislature offered any proposal for where this money (and water) would come from. Claims that a "bioenergy center" would reduce carbon emissions from the plants by 45% are completely unsubstantiated.

Rep. Sloan's Response: Burning coal, natural gas, and oil results in carbon and other emissions that contribute to global warming and health problems. Yet coal and oil also provide the lowest cost energy for the U.S. and the world. Energy supplies, whether to generate electricity or fuel motor vehicles, must be both reliable and affordable. Developing the public policies that provide incentives for alternative fuels must have public acceptance, be cost effective, and result in reliable energy supplies.GPACE Response: The costs of coal as a fuel, coal plant construction, water needed to make energy from coal, transporting the coal, and carbon emissions are all rising sharply. As coal-related costs increase, wind is likely to become a less expensive energy source. Because the sun's energy is greatest at exactly the times of greatest peak energy demand (summer days), solar energy is an ideal, cost-effective way for utilities to "shave" their peak demand and avoid their most expensive power purchases. Investing in renewable energy as a supplement to our fossil-fuel dominated energy market is a practical move on the part of Kansas. The cost of coal is rising. Its subsidies (whether public or private) look increasingly uncertain. And no proven technology exists that can protect Kansans from its health risks and demand for water. Ignoring those realities, while sinking $3.6 billion into new coal investment - is like putting a down payment on a burning house.

In the spirit of open, honest, and well-informed public debate over energy policy in Kansas, the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy would like to offer the following responses to Rep. Sloan's statements.Rep. Sloan's Response: My support was not for coal, my support was for renewable energy incentives that had been dismissed, but which are of vital necessity to our energy future. GPACE Response: None of the "energy bills" passed by the legislature during the 2008 session (and vetoed by the Governor) contained any binding or significant renewable energy incentives. These bills sought to lock Kansas into a one-time, massive investment in a single power source, coal, while failing to provide the groundwork needed to bring a renewable energy economy to Kansas. The only clear objectives of House substitute for SB327 and House substitute for SB148 were: (1) force the state to permit 1400 MW of additional coal-fired capacity for Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, and (2) punish the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for exerting administrative authority before the courts get a chance to assess the valid legal grounds of that authority. The wind energy provisions and net-metering provisions of both bills would have acted at as a deterrent to the development and use of renewable sources of energy. The carbon measures were substantively meaningless and would not have reduced carbon dioxide emissions in any significant or accountable way. Kansas is already dependent upon coal for 75% of its energy, at a time when the future of coal is increasingly uncertain. In any other arena, if one entity owned 75% of a market, it wouldn't just be considered a monopoly, it would be seen as a significant risk. These bills would have deepened Kansas' dependency on coal while all but squelching the chance for a diverse energy market.

Rep. Sloan's Response: Clean coal technologies are available today and additional research will provide more options in the near future. The Eastman Chemical Company gasifies coal and sells the captured CO2; the Tampa Electric Company has an electric generation unit that uses gasified coal as its fuel source; and Sunflower proposed to capture 45% of the flu gas carbon by using algae to "eat" the carbon. * Again - see previous comments (and Salina Journal articles by Duane Schrag) re: the proposed algae reactor Carbon dioxide is used in oil fields to increase yields by "pushing" the oil toward production wells; it also is used in the coal fields to "release" methane gas from the coal for collection and use for home heating. Additional research continues on whether CO2 can be permanently sequestered and pipelines to carry the captured CO2 must be constructed to move it to appropriate geological formations.GPACE Response: It just simply isn't true that clean coal technologies are available today they are neither available nor affordable for pulverized coal energy production which is the only kind of coal-fired electricity production in Kansas. Coal gasification technology is not economically viable anywhere in the U.S. In fact, the Bush Department of Energy recently abandoned a huge and highly publicized investment in so-called "clean coal" technology in Illinois (the FutureGen projecbecause it was deemed too expensive and technologically unattainable at this time. The purported existence of "clean coal" is a marketing myth pushed by the coal industry to deceive voters and consumers. Such technology is decades in the future, if possible at all. In the meantime, there is no such thing as clean coal and it has no bearing on immediate investments in energy infrastructure, global warming, or other fuel sources. Rep. Sloan should know better. The technology Rep. Sloan points to also currently requires triple the water use of a pulverized coal plant without carbon capture. And "mitigation" according the proposed legislation, specifically included unproven technologies. So, the measure pushed by members of the Kansas legislature was essentially a tax credit for a utility company to roll the dice on non-existent and ineffective CO2 capture technologies that, if deployed, would consume enormous amounts of fresh water and would not have been required to reduce CO2 emission levels at all. That's right - the legislation would have actually given utilities a tax credit simply for demonstrating interest in experimental technologies - no results required!

Rep. Sloan's Response: My work in organizing the five Kansas Electric Transmission Summits was focused on removing barriers to the construction of high voltage electric transmission lines to move wind power from rural areas to the customer load centers in Kansas and other states. Wind developers cannot construct the necessary wind farms to serve regional needs without having access to transmission lines, (lines that they cannot afford to construct on their own).GPACE Response: Transmission needed for wind energy does not depend upon the construction of the Sunflower Expansion at Holcomb. Two separate companies are right now competing to build high-capacity transmission lines in west and southwest Kansas without the Holcomb Plant Expansion. Both Oklahoma and Texas are aggressively planning or building transmission infrastructure linking remote, rural, high-wind areas with populous load centers - again, unassociated with any new coal plant construction.

From lawrence to Butte, Montana there's tons of wind power to harvest. I remember hearing about wind power from the sixth grade to the 12th grade and that was in the early 90's. If it works so well do it, if not scrap it.

Ian Stepp remembers visiting his aunt’s house as a kid, where he’d play classic games like Duck Hunt and iterations of the Mario Brothers saga on the family’s trusty old Nintendo Entertainment System.
Now pushing 30, Stepp is still a fan of the now-classic video games that in recent years have spawned a thriving culture and industry capitalizing on the nostalgia of grownups who coveted Nintendo game systems as kids in the 1980s and 90s.